Nicolina Elrick

04/09/2026

Eight years travelling through space and Bep iColombo has finally reached Mercury ☀️🛰️

The joint European and Japanese mission launched back in 2018 and has spent years making its way towards the closest planet to the Sun.

Getting there is surprisingly difficult. BepiColombo has had to use a carefully planned series of flybys around Earth, Venus and Mercury itself to slow down enough to eventually enter orbit.

Now the spacecraft has begun its final arrival phase.

Its two orbiters will eventually separate, with one studying Mercury’s surface and interior while the other investigates its magnetic field and the environment surrounding the planet.

Mercury is one of the least explored planets in our Solar System, despite being relatively close to us.

There are still huge questions about how it formed, why it has such an enormous iron core and how a planet sitting so close to the Sun can have ice hidden inside permanently shadowed craters.

After eight years just getting there, the really interesting part is about to begin. Sometimes space exploration requires an incredible amount of patience☀️

02/09/2026

Some satellites don’t need daylight to see Earth. 🛰️🌍

Rocket Lab has just launched another StriX satellite for Japanese company Synspective, adding to a growing constellation that can image the Earth through clouds, darkness and bad weather.

It uses something called synthetic aperture radar, or SAR.

Rather than relying on sunlight like a traditional camera, the satellite sends radar signals towards Earth and measures what comes back.

That means it can monitor the planet day and night, whatever the weather. And the potential uses are huge.

Following floods and earthquakes when cloud cover makes normal satellite imagery difficult.

Monitoring changes to cities and infrastructure.

Watching remote areas of the planet that are difficult to access from the ground.

What I find particularly interesting is how quickly this is becoming a real commercial service rather than experimental technology.

Synspective plans to build a constellation of around 30 satellites, with Rocket Lab already booked to launch many more of them before 2030.

Sometimes the most useful technology in space isn’t looking out into the universe.

It’s looking back at us 🌍

31/08/2026

Europe is building its own answer to Starlink 🛰️🇪🇺 And it’s starting to become very real.

German satellite manufacturer OHB has just secured a contract worth nearly €1 billion to build 18 satellites for IRIS², the European Union’s new satellite communications network.

The idea is to give Europe its own secure and resilient connectivity from space, rather than relying so heavily on infrastructure controlled by companies or governments outside the EU.

And recent events have shown just how important that can be.

Satellite networks are no longer simply about getting internet to remote locations.

They are becoming critical infrastructure for governments, businesses, emergency services and defence.

IRIS² is expected to eventually consist of hundreds of satellites, with the first launches planned for 2029 and services beginning around 2030.

Starlink has shown what a huge satellite network can achieve. Now Europe wants one of its own. The space race isn’t just about reaching the Moon or Mars anymore.

It’s also about who controls the infrastructure above our heads 🛰️

30/08/2026

28/08/2026

Japan is about to try something we’ve never done before 🇯🇵🚀

Bring a piece of a Martian moon back to Earth.

JAXA has unveiled the spacecraft for its upcoming MMX mission, which is preparing to launch towards Mars in October.

But Mars itself isn’t the destination.

The spacecraft is heading for Phobos, one of the planet’s two tiny moons.

If everything goes to plan, MMX will orbit Mars, study both of its moons, land on Phobos and collect samples from its surface before beginning the long journey back to Earth.

And those few grams of material could answer a surprisingly big question.

Where did Mars’ moons actually come from?

Scientists still aren’t certain whether Phobos and Deimos are captured asteroids or whether they formed from debris thrown into orbit after a huge impact with Mars.

Bringing an untouched sample back to Earth could finally give us an answer.

We’ve brought pieces of the Moon and asteroids back to Earth before.

Now Japan is going after a moon of another planet That’s pretty incredible.

26/08/2026

We’re just days away from launching a telescope that could completely change the way we see the universe 🔭🚀

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is now at the hangar at Kennedy Space Center, ready for its planned launch aboard Falcon Heavy this Sunday.

Roman is often compared to Hubble, but there’s one huge difference.

Its field of view is around 100 times larger.

That means instead of looking deeply at one tiny area of space, Roman will be able to survey enormous sections of the universe in incredible detail.

It will search for new planets beyond our solar system, study billions of galaxies and help scientists tackle two of the biggest unanswered questions in astronomy: what are dark matter and dark energy?

After years of designing, building and testing, it’s almost time to see what Roman can find.

Hubble gave us an extraordinary window into the universe.

James Webb allowed us to look further back in time.

Now Roman is about to give us the bigger picture 🌌

24/08/2026

India’s space programme is changing, and it could create a whole new generation of space companies 🚀🇮🇳

This weekend, as India celebrated National Space Day, ISRO outlined how it sees the future of the country’s growing space industry.

The plan is for private companies to take on more of the work involved in building rockets, satellites and spacecraft, while ISRO focuses increasingly on research, exploration and developing the technology needed for more ambitious missions.

It feels like an important moment.

India already has a rapidly growing community of space startups working on everything from rockets and propulsion to satellites and Earth observation.

Now there is a real opportunity for those companies to become a much bigger part of India’s space programme.

Three years after Chandrayaan 3 successfully landed near the Moon’s south pole, India isn’t just thinking about where it goes next.

It’s building the industry that could help take it there 🚀🌕

19/08/2026

China just landed a reusable orbital rocket 🚀

And the similarities to Falcon 9 are hard to miss.

Chinese space company LandSpace has successfully landed the first stage of its Zhuque 3 rocket after an orbital launch, marking a huge milestone for China’s growing commercial space industry.

The 66 metre stainless steel rocket launched before the booster returned to Earth, deployed its landing legs and touched down vertically.

Sound familiar? SpaceX has spent more than a decade proving that reusable rockets can completely change the economics of getting to orbit. Now we’re seeing that same approach being developed around the world.

LandSpace ultimately wants Zhuque 3 boosters to fly up to 20 times, with the rocket capable of carrying more than 14 tonnes to low Earth orbit.

For me, the interesting part isn’t that it looks like Falcon 9. It’s how quickly reusability is becoming the expectation rather than the exception.

SpaceX proved it could work.

Now we’re going to find out how many others can make it work at scale. 🚀🇨🇳

17/08/2026

Two rockets. Two missions. Just 38 minutes apart. 🚀🚀

has just set another remarkable launch record.

On Saturday night, two Falcon 9 rockets lifted off from Florida just 38.5 minutes apart, the shortest gap between two SpaceX launches to date.

One carried a satellite for Globalstar.

The other launched a mission for the U.S. Space Force.

Not long ago, a single orbital launch was an enormous event requiring months of preparation.

Now we’re reaching a point where rockets can leave the same coastline less than an hour apart, carrying completely different payloads for completely different customers.

That’s what makes this milestone so interesting.

Reusable rockets haven’t simply made reaching space cheaper.

They’re beginning to make launch routine.

And that could be one of the most important transformations in the history of spaceflight.

The future isn’t just about bigger rockets.

It’s about being able to launch whenever we need them. 🚀